Paint Me Pretty
by littleforestcat
Summary: Russia takes time to indulge in his second favorite hobby: painting. Drabblefic.


A/n: Started early but finished at a really late hour of the night. I would appreciate any feedback on this one. :)

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><p>Whenever Russia travelled back to his homeland for some alone time, he didn't just go back to get himself drunk on his precious vodka (he could do that anytime he wanted, after all). He regarded those few days not travelling to be his extra special days, the ones nobody, not even his own sisters, knew about.<p>

They were the days spent doing his second favorite hobby besides drinking…

Painting.

Like previously said, nobody knew it, but Russia had a secret, two secrets in fact, one being a large room below his even larger house. Now, despite what people thought of him, Russia actually liked peace and quiet, times when his mind could wander. No thoughts of world relations, treaties, war…The only thing on his mind whenever he visited his secret place was wood and painting.

Scanning the long, faded but sturdy table, a sawing instrument and sanding tools sat at the very end of it, unclean and looked as if they had been in use recently. Wooden chunks cluttered the table, surrounding a distinct wooden figure, about the size of Russia's large hand.

He picked it up, smiling in content as he inspected the lines on the head part that outlined two big, slanting eyes, cheeks, lips, a short nose, and the beginnings of hair. Sitting down on the stool, he readied his fine tip paintbrush coated with black paint and set to work on outlining the rest of its body, having already finished the other three figures of the doll.

It was rather surprising for him to pick up this new hobby. Most of this work was done by his women in tiny villages, and he was unsure how he could master painting the doll with his massive fingers and strong grip. But seeing as how he succeeded so far, he could stay down there and paint all night.

Once the outlining was done, he selected a great many paints for the main coloring: a light grey, cream, light violet and brown. Humming some more, he continued with the job until his shabby alarm clock read 2:30 am.

"Ah, it be finished!" he exclaimed pleasantly. Carefully, he gathered the complete finished product and began piecing it together. The first doll, tiny and less than half the length of his pinky was painted with red and yellow gold, sandy brown for the hair, blue for the eyes: little Latvia. He set that one aside and opened the next largest to place Latvia inside. This one was painted royal blue, fixed with a red tie, bright yellow hair, and even sporting glasses: Estonia. The second to last piece, even larger than the previous two was painted green with medium brown hair, Lithuania.

Once the dolls were stacked, Russia rubbed a little at his sleepy eyes, grabbing the finishing piece from the drying rack. Grinning in that hidden cruel way, he placed Lithuania in the largest of the dolls, painted cream with a matching scarf and violet eyes: Russia.

He held his product in his hands, taking in his finished work, critiquing it, loving it, and hating it. To check his work, he unstacked them slowly to find them all in a descending line, perfect in nearly every way he could imagine. Starting with Latvia, as the smallest, ending with Russia, the biggest.

Happy with the result, he put it back together again a final time and slipped it in to his coat pocket, maybe one day he might bring it out again to look at it, his favorite creation.

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><p><strong>Historical notes:<strong> A matryoshka doll, or babushka doll is a Russian nesting doll, which is a set of wooden dolls of increasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood. Much of the artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be very elaborate. The dolls often follow a theme, aside from the typical traditional peasant girls, the themes vary, from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.


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